November 29, 2006

Are Bush Voters Nuts?

A collective “I told you so” will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse’s study gets out.

Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.

Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.

Good thing I didn't vote for Bush ... But really, though, you only need to look at the following paragraph to assess how seriously to take this "study":

The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on. (emphasis added)

Are you willing to subscribe to the conclusions of someone so certifiably off his rocker as to wish to get the mentally ill to vote? If ever there were a class undeserving of the vote, it would have to be this one, and yet this Christopher Lohse clown thinks adding the voices of those who aren't in their right minds somehow improves the democratic process (and if he doesn't yet advocates such nonsense, he's an active enemy of said process). Methinks the search for psychosis should begin with Chris Lohse himself - the bloke's a nutter.

PS: Just to forestall anyone even thinking of trotting out certain arguments, yes, I do recognize that Lohse is only claiming that the more psychotic the individual, the stronger the preference for "authoritarian" leadership, but putting aside the dubious claim that Bush campaigned on a more "authoritarian" platform than Kerry, does anyone really believe that 69 outpatients in 3 Connecticut facilities constitutes a large and representative sample of the voting population, or even just the mentally ill? You don't need to be a Bush partisan to see that this is junk science from start to finish.

Comments

This reminds me very much of the various Bush IQ hoaxes. A great number of people find the idea that people who disagree with them are intelligent, sane and well intentioned to be utterly preposterous.